Dav Pilkey

Dav Pilkey (born 1966) is an American children's author and illustrator, creator of Captain Underpants (from 1997) and the Dog Man graphic novels (from 2016).

He was born David Murray Pilkey Jr. on 4 March 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio. His first book, World War Won, was published in 1987. He wrote and illustrated many picture books, including The Paperboy, which received a Caldecott Honor in 1997, and under the pen name Sue Denim he wrote four Dumb Bunnies books (1994 to 1997), later adapted for television by Nelvana.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants appeared on 1 September 1997. In it two fourth-graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, hypnotise their principal, Mr Krupp, into becoming Captain Underpants, and it was followed by Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets and a long series. Dog Man, a spin-off graphic novel series, began on 30 August 2016. By 2025 it had reached 14 main books, and in 2020 it accounted for 13% of comic book sales tracked by BookScan.

For collectors. The first edition of The Adventures of Captain Underpants was published by Scholastic in 1997 (ISBN 0-590-84628-0). Early printings read "An Epic Novel by Dav Pilkey", while later printings changed this to "The First Epic Novel", a simple way to tell an early copy. Later collector's (2005), colour (2013) and anniversary (2023) editions also exist.